Magic in the Air
There’s magic in your eyes
I can see that there is magic in your eyes
A softness in your stare
that leaves me knowing there is magic
There’s magic in your touch
|I can feel that there is magic in your touch
It sets my soul on fire
fills me with desire that magic
Magic in the air
Don’t you know that there is magic in the air
It reaches deep inside, there’s nowhere I can hide
It fills me with such happiness that magic in your eyes
There’s magic in our love
Don’t you know that there is magic in our love
You’ve cast your tender spell
Don’t you know how deep I fell for your magic
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG
Nothing profound about this song but it does remind me of how often we have an effect on other people’s lives and without ever knowing it.
I worked a summer season on the Pride of Bilbao, a ship going from Portsmouth to Bilbao in Spain. I was singing this song one night when Barrie and Pat, a middle-aged couple walked past. They stopped to listen and during my break called me over for a chat and we became friends. We lost contact for many years but eventually met again when Barrie wrote to tell me he had lost his wife and would like to book one of our apartments for a few weeks to help him get over it. It wasn’t until then that I discovered that Magic in the Air had become their song and Barrie still listened to it, as it brought back fond memories of their lives together.
It is possible that a simple act of kindness you perform today might be forgotten instantly by the recipient or it might be remembered for the rest of their lives and precipitate other acts of kindness. We should never underestimate our place in this world and the positive effect we can have on others.
A FEW WORDS FROM BARRIE TRACIE
As I read your recollection … it all came flooding back to me just like watching a movie, in colour, stereo, Todd-AO and 3D.
Scene: bustling deck of a cruise ship night
Action …
We were parading along Deck 8 on our way to dine at the posh restaurant, weaving our way through the milling throngs of holidaymakers making the most of their first day of freedom….some already zonked.
That’s when your music hit us.
It was quite dramatic. Both Pat and I stopped in our tracks, looked at each other. There was magic in the air. “Who’s that?” I asked the fair Patricia, believing that it was a record and dammit I was puzzled at not knowing the performer.
We followed the vibes down to Deck 7, where we saw you in your cabaret set, found a couple of seats, listened for I reckon about half an hour or so…and trying to work out who’s songs you were covering.
All your own work!!
We listened more, enjoyed talking to you,l bought some of your goodies… and played a lot on our casual, zigggy-zaggy three day drive down to Marbella.
So what puzzled us was how come you were not in the top ten, or on telly or surrounded by gaggling gangs of groupies (which you might well have been).
I recall Pat campaigned diligently with showbiz contacts on the Dailies and Sundays to get publicity: but it’s a tough, crazy, highly organised and financed business – and loads of high flying agents, managers and record companies were well ahead of the game and providing ‘incentives; galore.
Despite that it came to pass that for us the magic lingered on ….
I’ll never know why you never seemed to consider the song as being amongst your finest. Then again, I suppose it’s all in the ear of the listener.
And I guess for me a Pat it had a sort of symbolism for our lives at that time. But that’s a long story.
Once or twice we’ve talked about how different your life could have been had “stardom” shone it’s dazzling/often destructive light on you.
I doubt you’d have had the magic of Mlini … and all the other magnificancies that surround you.
Inevitably I also ponder on what my own life would have been had I pursued the offers of tv presenting, theatre and tv writing and executive jobs on National papers. They never really appealed to me. No bastard was going to run my life, tell me what to do.
Except for Pat!
I think we are both extremely lucky dudes.
Barrie Tracie March 2021